Now, I don't recommend this map size. I don't personally play it at this map size (or insane before it). But many people really love these crazy large maps.

So here's a game of AI vs. AI I'm using for testing.

Be warned: It uses 15 GIGABYTES of memory and is pushing my 10-core PC pretty hard. At this size, turn times are not going to be fast. In the map I'm playing, there are 64 players. If you figure that each player is able to move in just 1 second, that's still a minute per turn and 1 second would be really fast given the size.

With those caveats, let's take a look..

30 turns in:

Despite being zoomed way out, the entire known universe is only a few pixels on the mini map.

Will be updating this...

Had to restart to increase the object count.

So now turn 62

The known universe is tiny. TINY!

I also changed the number of one faster than i would have liked.

300 turns later:

My little corner of the galaxy is a happening place!

Also, note, there are now hundreds of thousands of entities in the game so if you don't have at least 16GB of system memory, you really shouldn't try this size map.

I've only met a handful of the races out there.

Anyway, the point is, this is a map size I don't recommend playing really, it's for the ultimate die-hard.

Brad, i7-6950X OC to 4.1 Ghz, GTX 1080, and 32 GB of very high end RAM here. While it sounds like your machine is just as good, if I can help test this stuff please PM me and email me a save so we can compare how our supercomps can handle this map.

I WAS the ultimate die-hard, until you surpassed my budget! Bravo! Someday... someday...

All this means is that I'll have to mod the next biggest size up to 380 hexes so I can still play my insane games. Wish I had the computing power to take on Ludicrous. I really appreciate the support for us weirdos!

"I tried playing this game at max settings and it totally lagged. What kinda of two bit game lags in 2017?!?!?!"

Give them what they want and they will still hate you.. >.> <.<

Hey Brad, is there any way you can build like a Computer tester thing that players can run that tells them if their system can run the game at x settings? there are a lot of people out there that still only have 8gigs of ram, or have an outdated GPU cause you know... 4x games don't need that right?

I suspect a lot of people are trying to use way way more game than their computer can handle and don't realize that it is the computer and not the game given the 64bit background.

"I tried playing this game at max settings and it totally lagged. What kinda of two bit game lags in 2017?!?!?!"

Give them what they want and they will still hate you.. >.> <.<

Hey Brad, is there any way you can build like a Computer tester thing that players can run that tells them if their system can run the game at x settings? there are a lot of people out there that still only have 8gigs of ram, or have an outdated GPU cause you know... 4x games don't need that right?

I suspect a lot of people are trying to use way way more game than their computer can handle and don't realize that it is the computer and not the game given the 64bit background.

Good point. It is up to us die-hard fans to point out that both WE and THEY asked for this. We should encourage Stardock to be responsive to player input, not punish them for trying. This is OUR game, and maybe we should make sure potential players get accurate information. If you find these sorts of comments in a review, I suggest you leave a (very polite) brief comment. Examples:

"Please be aware that, based on feedback from the community, Stardock changed the map sizes back, and they are no longer smaller than they were. 5/9/2017," or

"Please be aware that the ludicrous map and all of the larger map sizes now in the game were changed due to customer feedback. 5/9/2017."

NOTE: I am NOT suggesting we try to argue every review. Everyone has their right to their opinion, and we must be fair to those who are disappointed. I am suggesting we ensure that reviews accurately reflect the content of the game.